Defence Experts Delivering for the Nation
DE&S helps our armed forces protect the nation, our territories and our allies. Few other organisations have a higher collective purpose.
It’s this purpose that drives our experts to deliver every day, making sure the soldiers, sailors and aviators serving our country have what they need to succeed. And it’s this purpose that is driving us to change how we work so we can continue to respond to the demands of today and meet the defence challenges of tomorrow.
Our work directly contributes to national security and international stability and we are committed to delivering the best equipment and support to our armed forces and allies.
Our people make a difference
Behind every piece of defence equipment stands a team of dedicated experts.
From engineering and safety experts to commercial managers and marine salvage specialists, our workforce brings together the brightest minds in defence procurement and support services. Their skills and commitment ensure our armed forces have access to the right equipment when and where they need it.
Harriet Rushton is a salvage and marine operations wrecks environmental manager, responsible for managing the inventory of 5,700 shipwrecks worldwide. The job involves assessing risk to the marine environment of pollution from the wrecks.
“The MOD is unique in its wreck management methods and as the experts we’re trusted to mange our programme of work in the most appropriate way” – Harriet
Lucy Crowther has been the chief engineer for several new and experimental crewed and uncrewed aircraft.
Through her work, Lucy uses her expertise to challenge industry and government to think differently within the highly-regulated air safety environment to ensure we can collectively deliver capability to the end-user in a much shorter timescale than previously achieved.
“Everything I work with is at the cutting-edge of technology, capability or regulation. We are paving the way for future projects.” – Lucy Crowther
A Track Record of Delivery
We deliver every day to help our armed forces meet today’s threats and support humanitarian missions. We manage around 600 projects and more than 2,600 contracts for defence and more major programmes than any other part of UK government. We deliver 98% of strategic milestones for our armed forces and about £13 billion worth of operational support and capabilities for them.
*DE&S Annual Report & Accounts 2023-24
DE&S Delivering Change to Drive Excellence
The nature of defence is evolving rapidly and so are we. To meet these challenges, we’ve embarked on the biggest DE&S change in a generation. We’re embracing innovative new ways of working to become more agile and responsive. And we’ve redesigned our organisation to deliver more, more efficiently.
The new, improved DE&S will increase outputs for defence, improve availability of key platforms and get essential, innovative and life-saving kit to the front lines faster.
Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin:
“Our work is important for our nation. What we deliver is protection and security while looking to enhance the nation’s prosperity. DE&S is pivotal for our journey in enabling that, for not only defence but for the whole nation.
“What’s going on here is exciting and energising. It shows a degree of confidence about knowing this is a decent organisation with the humility to know we can be even better, and I admire that. This is underpinned by an amazing set of people who work together in collaboration to fulfil that ambition. It’s very, very special.”
More about how we’re delivering for the nation
Find out more about what we do at DE&S.
Support for global operations
Every equipment programme, every bit of kit, every UK military operation no matter where it is in the world across land, sea and air, is also backed by the support we provide 24/7, 365 days of the year.
Partnering with industry for growth
Our commitment extends beyond delivering world-class equipment and support to the UK Armed Forces; we are dedicated to supporting UK economic growth, driving exports, championing sustainability and creating social value across our operations and the contracts we place with industry.
Our strategy
Unlocking our capacity to increase Defence’s outputs
In the face of increasing global threats we are changing the way we work to be more efficient while driving greater pace and agility into our operations to stay ahead of our adversaries and protect our nation and allies.
Our strategy is built upon delivering more of what matters for our armed forces and the UK. To achieve this, our strategy has three strategic outcomes, each with ambitious targets to be achieved by the end of 2025.
